Sailing through the Troubled Waters of Foreign Policy Dilemmas, Domestic Political Polarization and Cultural Clashes

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Is it too Late to Switch to Bernie?

In case you haven’t heard, the Inspector General of the State Department has released a report that solidifies many of the criticisms of Hillary Clinton for using a private server and portraying it in keeping with State Department procedures and not a threat to national security. This is not the way a Hillary supporter like myself wants to begin the day.

The reaction of the Clinton team is that the report actually supports her contentions, which I doubt even that team believes, but at this point what else is there to do but keep stone walling? Do a Donald Trump? And say: Well, I ‘m a politician and that’s what we politicians do, we lie. How do you think I have been this successful this far? I just play the lying game better than those dummies?

The Donald might be able to pull that off (of course I rooted for the housing prices to go down. I’m a business man. What? I should buy when prices are high?), but he is unique in his ability to turn attackers’ knives around and stabbing them.

The email scandal is just one more painful reminder of how much this election is going to boil down to who we hate least as our choice to lead us in 2o17. A majority of us don’t like either one of them. If it comes down to either Hillary or Trump, I’m still in Hillary’s camp for more reasons than would fit into this post. Actually, before I heard the news about the IG report this morning, I had planned to write about a disparity between Trump’s talk and his actions, but that will have to wait.

As for lies, or what I think of as politicians misrepresenting the truth (relatively few out right lies are told, but straight forward truth is told even less), I don’t think of Hillary as a much bigger liar than the rest, but only the most publicized liar, hounded by the right for decades who have managed to tar and feather her with that belittling “brand.”

As the paranoid said: “Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean that someone isn’t out to get me.” Hillary’s handling of the email reflects a kind of bunker mentality developed through decades of these attacks from the right. From testimony in this IG report, it seems she kept her emails on that private server to “protect her privacy” from the gutter snipers, and it did work to the extent to which it allowed her to destroy thousands of emails that she tells us were all personal, but who really believes that? I for one imagine that many of those emails were, let’s say, personally political, meant only for the eyes of a relative few. And possibly damaging if generally known.

The whole email affair makes it hard not to question her judgement, but then again she is facing Donald Trump, not King Solomon. Is it wise, for example, to unleash a barrage of personal attacks on anyone who criticizes you in any way, including people that you hope will support you in the election and foreign leaders you will need to deal with if elected?

But hold it. Can we be sure as yet that our choices boil down to those two?

Bernie just won’t go away and, though Hillary keeps saying she has the nomination won, that is not exactly true, and irritates me a bit. She has the nomination if all or most of those 500-plus super delegates, party regulars appointed not decided by primaries, stay in her corner at the convention. BUT THEY ARE NOT BOUND TO DO SO. THEY COULD CHANGE THEIR MINDS BY THEN.

I just saw a poll this morning indicating the race in the California primary is close, and this is before the bad news for Hillary became public. And, though it seems unlikely, there is the possibility that the FBI could find reason to charge Hillary for a crime regarding the emails and then, well…………..????????????????

As a sort of bizarre cherry on top of this mad scenario, last night Trump was on Jimmy Kimmel and via Kimmel, Bernie challenged Trump to a debate in California which Trump, showed a willingness to consider…. Wouldn’t that be something. Stay tuned.

IN A NUTSHELL…..

This blog will examine whether we Americans are to be masters of our destiny or victims of fate. We live in an age of increasing complexity, misinformation and ever more rapid change. We face grave problems as a nation, yet we are so polarized that we can't stand to speak with those who differ with us about them. Are we just passengers on our own Titanic? Or can we come together to save the ship? That's the central issue this blog will revolve around.

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